Before the Fall
by Midnight Muser
Summary: She wants to help him; she wants to believe him. She wants so many things which she knows she can never have, yet, here she is, once again, hoping for a miracle.


**AN: Don't mind me as I sit here and casually upload some prompts I just filled today on my AruAni blog. **

**I took the dialogue from episode 23 and used it in this fic. I wanted this to be close to what actually happened in the anime/manga, while adding Annie's thoughts and feelings into the mix.**

**Soooo, yeah. I can take credit for, like, 0% of the dialogue used here—not counting inner monologues, or thoughts.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>When Annie heard the all-too-familiar voice call her name, she was tempted to smile; whether that smile would be out of relief or amusement, she didn't know, but she had a premonition that it would be out of the former. That voice—the voice that she heard in her dreams, the voice that haunted her and made her shiver to her very core, the voice she thought she'd never hear again after that day—was calling out to <em>her<em>—and _here_ of all places.  
>At first she wondered if she was only hearing things.<p>

Stopping dead in her tracks, she took a second to compose herself before turning around to face the voice that could only belong to him. Running in the direction of the voice, feeling like her life depended on hearing his voice again, it didn't take her long to find him.

Hearing his voice was one thing, but seeing his face was completely different. Rooted to the spot, Annie held herself back from doing the one thing She wanted to do oh so _badly_: hug him.

"Hey," he started, and her eyes widened as reality hit her; this was _really_ happening right now. "You're one of the Military Police now, aren't you?"

Taking in the presence of the boy standing in front of her, Annie couldn't help but to feel even more overwhelmed as the minutes ticked by. It was _him_, yet, it wasn't….not really; there was a different air about him—a nervousness in his eyes that died on the tip of his tongue when he spoke in nothing but a confident, demanding tone. Yet it still sounded like him. Not all of him was gone—the him that she knew and grew to love.  
>"Armin…" she managed to whisper, and he smiled at that.<p>

Leaving her inhibitions behind, Annie smiled back at him—a short, curt smile, but genuine nonetheless—then she quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why are you dressed like that?" she asked, noting the hooded cloak that he wore—almost as if he was hiding from someone.

"I'm a pack bearer," he answered, "I have my Maneuver Gear hidden under my raincoat."  
>To prove himself to her, he lifted the garment over his waist and revealed his gear. "Look," he said, as if he didn't already have Annie's full attention.<p>

With a hum of acknowledgment, Annie stared at the gear, a single question on her mind.  
>"What's going on?" She asked, because as much as she liked to think that Armin came to her for the sole purpose of shooting the breeze, she knew better. She knew he needed her for something.<p>

"Annie," he started, and he took off his hood so his eyes could pierce into hers as she spoke. "Would you assist me in helping Eren escape?"

_Eren_…she should have known. Everything that Armin did nowadays was Eren-centric. Of course, it wasn't his fault; it was only his job. Still, though, Annie couldn't help but to feel a bit of jealousy boil within her at the mention of his name. She was already skeptical of helping out when she asked, "Escape where? If you disobey the monarchy, where will you go inside these walls?"

"We'll just hide for a while," he answered confidently, and Annie began to wonder if he was a fool. There was no way that was going to work; not with the tight watch the Military Police and Monarchy had over the Survey Corps during their stay here.

"I don't intend to fight the monarchy head-on," he continued. "It will be reported as a rebellion by a portion of the Survey Corps." Pausing, he made sure that Annie was following, and she was; she was, in fact, hanging on to every word the fool said.  
>"It'll buy time. Time we'll spend finding enough ammunition to counter the other factions at the tribunal. And we <em>will<em> find it."

Concern in her eyes as she spoke, Annie voiced her thoughts. "Enough ammunition? Is something so convenient just lying around? What's your evidence?"

Armin's next reaction caught her off guard, and she was left to wonder just what the Survey Corps were planning. Eyes plastered to the ground, and a shakiness to his voice that she hadn't heard in a while, Armin answered with, "I'm sorry, but I can't say."

Weighing her options, Annie wondered if helping him would be worth it. Honestly, she didn't really care about what happened to Eren; it was Armin she was worried about. If she ended up helping, it would be for him and him alone. But she had problems of her own right now—probably bigger than Jaeger's, and she wasn't ready to let her guard down just yet.

"Sorry, but I can't help you," she said, and she meant it; or at least, she thought she did. "I won't tell anyone, but you'll have to do it on your own." With a feeling of dread in her heart, she prepared to walk away. She got as far as turning away from Armin when he called her name again; this time, though, with much more urgency.

"Please!" he continued, and Annie felt herself slow down, but she still refused to stop. "Eren will be killed!"  
>And out of all the things he could have said to her, that made her stop. Maybe it was the tone of his voice, maybe it was because she knew how much Eren meant to him; she didn't quite know, but she knew that something was strong enough to make her stop.<p>

"Clueless people who only care about saving their own skin will unwittingly set humanity on a path toward self-destruction!" He took a second to calm down a bit before continuing. "I know I can't convince you. But even so…I have to make a big wager!"

_You think you can't convince me?_ she wanted to say so badly._ Fool, you've already convinced me…but I'm afraid._  
>And she was. She was afraid of him, she was afraid of the situation, she was afraid of this feeling of dread slowly building inside of her, she was afraid of this feeling of love bubbling in her chest the more time she spent with this boy. His hold on her was alarming, and she wondered if he knew his power over her.<p>

"Of course, I'll do my best to avoid causing you trouble. But to get through the checkpoints within Wall Sina, I need Military Police help!" The urgency was back in voice, and Annie could feel her heart tear. She wanted to help him—_badly_—if he got caught…if he got hurt…she didn't know what she would do. After all, she had risked a lot to save him that one time.

"This is the only way!" he continued, and at that, she turned around a bit to look him in the eyes. There was something she needed to know before she helped him—something that was weighing down on her chest like a ton of bricks.

"Armin," she said, and her voice was back to its normalcy. "Do I really look like such a good person to you?"

His eyes narrowed at that, and he thought as he said, "A good person? Well…" There was a pause and then, "I don't really like that term. Because to me, it just seems to mean someone who's good _for_ you. And I don't think there's any one person who's good for everyone."

She wanted to respond to that—to make some sort of comment about his wise way of speaking, but he continued before she got a chance.

"So if you don't help me…" The pause in his words sent an icy chill down Annie's spine, and she resisted the urge to shiver unpleasantly. "Then, to me, you're a bad person, right?"

Looking at him once more, she scrutinized him with everything she had. Of course, her mind was already made up from the beginning, but there was still this feeling of dread that she just couldn't shake, and she was beginning to sense it was coming from Armin. The way that he spoke just now…it sounded like he knew something. Something he shouldn't know.

Sighing, she decided to put this feeling aside for now and go with what her heart was telling her to do—something she didn't often at all—and help him. Taking her gun off of her back and placing it against the wall behind her, she stared straight ahead as she said, "Fine."

She tried to ignore the gasp he let out, followed by a look of…guilt, was it? _No_, she reasoned with herself,_ probably nervousness_.  
>With resolve in her heart, she turned away from him and slipped a ring on her finger. She knew that if she used this, she'd be damned; but if Armin were to come into contact with any form of danger, she was willing to sacrifice. Only for him.<br>"I'm in."

They walked along in silence (save for the small-talk Eren kept up with Armin that Annie didn't bother to listen to), and during that time, she had time to think. She had time to think about the situation, about Armin's words, about his actions; everything seemed peculiar to her, and she was starting to piece this mystery together. The finger which wore her special ring quivered in anticipation. Perhaps she'd have to use it, after all, but not to save Armin…

"Hey, if I hadn't helped you, how did you plan to get over the wall?" she asked, trying to sound as innocently curios as possible.

"I was going to use the Maneuver Gear to get through," Armin answered, and Annie wanted so badly to believe him, but-

"That's insane," she replied, voicing her thoughts. "Wouldn't it have been easier to escape before you'd reached Stohess?"  
>Less and less of this "escape" was making sense to her, and she was growing more anxious as the moments passed.<br>"Why here? And why now?" she asked, knowing that Armin was probably wracking his brain for plausible answers right now.

Of course, he had an answer right away. "I felt that the complicated layout of this city would give us a better chance at swapping Eren with Jean. And I thought pretending to go along with it, rather than an outright opposition, would prevent suspicion and buy our escape more time."

Staring at him for a long moment, Annie finally replied with a simple, "I see. I get it now." And she did. She got it all _perfectly_ well.

The similarity between minds, hearts, and trust, is that all three can be broken. And for Annie, all three were broken at the same time in the moment Armin went down those stairs.

With a sadness in her heart that she hadn't felt in a long time, she attempted to use the ring on her finger, only to have her plan foiled. But all was not lost for her just yet, because, like she had said, "This is where my bet begins." and she successfully transformed into the Female Titan anyway.

Watching him leave his place of hiding along with Mikasa, Annie knew that she could have easily killed him. Although Armin was a strong soldier of mind, he was not one of body, and she could have taken his life in an instant. But, just like last time, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

And just like last time, although she felt regret in her heart, none of it had to do with saving Armin's life—even though it may have cost her hers.

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><p><strong>Thank you for taking the time to read this!<strong>

**Comments, follows, favorites, ****_constructiv_****e criticism, and all that jazz is very much appreciated.**


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